Troublesome Topic: PHASE 7.1  SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS ON THE ARK

LIGHTS IN THE ARK

Because the ark had no windows, they had to have lighting inside the ark. If they burned a type of fuel, it would have caused fumes, in which case, good ventilation was crucial.

If they had a modern form of lighting, it would have eliminated the problem of fumes, but did they have such things?

If the animals were awake, and not hibernating, they would have generated lots of manure which includes methane, a gas which burns easily and quite cleanly. Thus, a slurry that included manure could have fueled a series of lamps.

Lamps with fuel would have required refueling many times during the year-and-17-days they were on the ark. Imagine the difficulties of removing the reservoir from a hanging lamp, refilling it, and replacing it while it is swinging back and forth as all things do on a boat on rough seas. This would have left open the possibility of spilling some of the flammable substance on wooden surfaces each time they did it, and it would have been required many, many times.

THE BEST OPTIONS FOR VENTILATION IN THE ARK

The best options are:

1. Moon pools working with the ventilation windows along the top of the ark
2. a source of power as useful to them as electricity is to us.

Here is the verse in the flood narrative that describes the air vents at the top.

Since God told Noah to build it with ventilation gaps that were one cubit high and located just under the roof, this tells us that God protected them from being hit by any massive waves that went so high as to get water into those vent gaps.

Moon pools have been known since ancient times. The book, Inside the Ark, Why it Worked, by Tim Chaffey and Laura Welch describes moon pools as tall hollow sections built into a structure that are open at the bottom and at the top, thus allowing the flow of something (such as water and air) up and down inside that structure. The water level inside the moon pool would go up and down along with the water level on the outside of the boat. If Noah built moon pools into the ark, I think he had one for waste and either one or two for ventilation. When the water in the moon pool went down, it would suck air in through the narrow vents at the top of the ark; as the waves pushed the water up inside the moon pool, it would push air out of the ark by way of those narrow vents at the top. If the ark were constructed with ductwork, this process would mix the air throughout the ark with new, fresh air so that the ark was constantly being ventilated.

The system the ark had for ventilation had to handle resting on dry ground instead of in the water for long periods of time, (about 7 days plus 40 days at the beginning of the flood and over 7 months at the end of the flood). During the first 40 days of heavy rains there would have been strong winds, and during the last 7 months when the water was receding, we are told that God sent winds to dry the earth.

The problems would have come during the first 7 days in the ark prior to the commencement of the various catastrophes that I call the flood event. During this time there was no natural wind, at least not enough to ventilate the ark, and conditions would have gotten dangerous very quickly. Not just the smell – bad smells alone never killed anyone that I know of. But various gases and a lack of oxygen are indeed serious problems.

The solutions for this are either: they had a source of power as useful to them as electricity is to us, or God caused a strong wind to blow just on the ark to ventilate it during those first 7 days.

A “modern” source of power. I believe that people before the flood had the intelligence to come up with useful sources of power.

If they could precisely cut stone using tons of pressure, make straight lines and perfect corners with mind-blowing precision, make guidance systems for cutting stone vessels with walls the thickness of a credit card, create extremely precise tools of measurement, create design-systems that could guide them in making large chambers to very precise specifications, build airplanes, if they could built to a specific resonant frequency, and if they could understand resonant frequencies better than we can, then they could also create a source of power that was as useful to them as our electricity is to us. (For more on the advanced level of technology in ancient times, see my study called – Don’t Be Like the Technologically Advanced People of Ancient Times that Disappeared; Here is a link to the first lesson: ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY HAD TO EXIST IN ANCIENT TIMES.

In the case of the ark, there may have been enough methane produced by the animals to run more than just the lamps, it could have run a generator or some other system that produced power for fans, pumps, lighting, and other needs. The boat did not need to move under its own power, so there was no need for the high level of power required to turn a screw. But ventilation and removal of waste were necessities, and if they had a source of power on board, there would have been many ways in which they could have managed both those needs.

Could they have used solar or wind energy? 

Solar energy can quickly be ruled out because the ark was in dark, cloudy, rainy weather so much of the time.

Wind power?

The strongest winds would have been during the first 40 days, and then at the end, when part of the process of bringing the water level down was a wind sent by God. But from day 40 through about day 135, there was less wind, and that was the bulk of the time the ark was floating on the water, and the moon pools were doing what they do best. During that time there would have been some wind, but I struggle to envision how one would affix wind turbines to the ark and have enough of them to garner a reasonable amount of power. In real life today, there are two major problems with wind power – it does not function when the winds are really strong or really weak, and wind power is not usually enough by itself because it is inconsistent; it needs to be paired with at least one other source of power to provide a house, a farm, or a community with the power they need.

HOW DID THEY HAVE ENOUGH DRINKING WATER?

The creators of the Ark Encounter believe that Noah probably built holding tanks into the top of the ark and there were ways the roof of the ark funneled water into those tanks until they were full.

The Ark Encounter in Kentucky is 43,350 sq feet.

1 inch of water on the roof of the Ark Encounter is 3,612.5 cubic feet of water.

A cubic foot is 1728 cubic inches. 1 gallon = 231 cubic inches.

So when it was raining there was no lack of drinking water. It rained without stopping for the first 40 days and from then till about day 135 it rained off and on.

After God shut the windows lattices of the heavens, it was probably heavy dews that provided drinking water for the people and animals on the ark.

COULD DEW ALONE PRODUCE ENOUGH WATER FOR ALL THOSE ANIMALS?

The oceans were hot and producing heavy evaporation, resulting in extremely heavy dew.

1/32^nd of an inch of water on the ark would mean 844 gallons of water.

1/16^th of an inch of water on the ark would mean 1,689 gallons of water

Was that enough water for all the animals and the 8 people?

WHAT ABOUT RESTLESS, UNCOOPERATIVE OR VICIOUS ANIMALS?

It is possible that God put some of the animals (the biggest one or the most dangerous ones) into a hibernating or semi-hibernating state during the worst of the flood event. In that state they would consume far less food (a good thing) and produce far less methane (a bad thing if they used Methane for fuel). A different source of power would have required much of their storage capacity taken by fuel for the generators, an impractical idea. Therefore, if they used methane for fuel, God would not have place all the animals in a deep sleep, and not for the duration of the flood, that would have been too long.

WHAT WAS THE COVERING THAT NOAH REMOVED SO HE COULD SEE IF THE GROUND WAS DRY?

The use of this term in conjunction with the Tabernacle has caused some scholars to think that Noah’s ark, like the Tabernacle, was covered in several layers of animal hides.

By this time Noah was convinced it would not rain again until the ordeal was over. It appears that Noah took off part of the roof structure (whether sealed wood or wood covered in animal skins) and stood on something like a ladder, or climbed onto the roof itself, so he could get a good look around. Since he built it, he knew how to take it apart.

Was this done at the command of God?  It appears that it was not.

Was Noah showing a lack of faith?  Maybe so, maybe not. Noah continued to display faith and obedience by remaining in the ark for almost 2 full months after that, until God told him to come out of the ark. Besides that, God closed the door to the ark, so Noah could not open it by himself.

It is very doubtful that Noah prepared ahead of time for this and made a special trap door in the roof so he could pop out and take a look around. I base this on the fact that Genesis 6:22 tells us that Noah did everything just as God had instructed him.

The point of Genesis 8:13b is that Noah removed part of the covering so he could get a better view of the ground all around him.

SUMMARY

God gave Noah the wisdom and experience he needed to come up with most of the solutions he needed for the flood event. In some cases, a little miraculous help from God was necessary and God was happy to supply it.

The next lesson in this study is PHASE 7.2  AFTER THE FLOOD